Kevin O’Neill- Omega 8 & A Hostage to Fortune CD-Rs
Here’s some goodies from the Remote Viewing files. Here we have two CD-Rs from Kevin O’Neill, one of the more prolific artists from the compilation. Kevin was also the man behind Network 23, the label who released both volumes of Remote Viewing. I’ll let John Costello’s own words tell a bit of Kevin’s story:
“Kevin founded N23 and as well as creating his own music he worked hard to promote independent electronic music in the UK. He played live at the UK Electronica in London in 1988 and organised this successful concert in his home city on March 18th the following year. The full billing was Kevin, Steve & Linda Hillman, myself and Greg Truckell. I’ll always be grateful to Kevin for liking my music enough to include it, as it’s a bit different from most synthambient and sequencer/progressive N23 artists.”
Fans of the Remote Viewing cassette, Costello, and various synth-heavy ambient acts (Deca, Tangerine Dream, Carl Matthews, Black Tape For a Blue Girl, Klaus Schulze, Coil etc.) will certainly find lots and lots to love on these two CD-Rs, which were graciously donated by Kevin. Omega 8 is a collection of tracks from the 1988 Omega cassette, with the final two tracks missing. A bonus track, “Islands Suite” appears in its stead. “Islands Suite” originally appeared on the Islands K7, while an edited version appears on Remote Viewing Volume 1, released in 1986. The second CD-R collects all tracks from 1993’s A Hostage of Fortune K7, though the title track appears in edited form from its cassette counterpart.
All in all, there’s roughly an hour and a half’s worth of incredible ambient music contained within! Here’s the info:
Kevin O’Neill- Omega 8 CD-R
1. Another Morning
2. Eye Of The Storm
3. Guernica
4. Blodwen (The White Rose)
5. Speaker
6. Prometheus
7. Islands Suite
Kevin O’Neill- A Hostage to Fortune CD-R
1. Indefinite Divisibility
2. P-M H
3. Piano No. 4
4. Flutecho
5. Tetapi Itu Kesenian (For Leif & Rukmini)
6. Reminiscence (For Michael Neil)
7. Ghosts
8. The Massing Of The Shades (For Norman Jope)
9. A Hostage To Fortune Pts 3-6
Many thanks to Kevin for his blessing in posting these! I’ll leave you with some amazing video footage of Kevin’s performance of “Island Sweet,” sourced from the infamous Network 23 concert in Cardiff, 1989. Enjoy!
January 19, 2012 at 1:38 am
Excellent! Thank you!
January 25, 2012 at 9:26 am
Sounds awesome so far!, loving Omega 8
June 12, 2012 at 10:49 pm
Great to see you are still around Kevin, tracked you down via youtube vids of the N23 gig, brought back happy memories of travelling up to Cardiff on the train from Swansea to the chapter arts centre just after Wales had won a rugby match.
Have just downloaded the CDR’s and look forward to listening, have all your cassette’s up in the attic, so great to be able to just put onto mp3 player for a listen. One day when I have time will have to try and digitise some of my 80’s EM collection, especially intimations of immortaility. therewas a great track of yours on a Freeman brothers compilation I recall.
Do you still record music? Is Greg Truckell making music?
August 4, 2012 at 5:55 pm
I’m afraid the answer is no to both questions. I concentrate on writing and doing nothing these days; at 67 I deserve a rest. Published my first book recently. Greg works as a ‘storyteller’ these days (he gives talks, mainly to children) and seems to have left music far behind.
October 18, 2012 at 1:17 pm
I guess you deserve a rest. But I just want to say thanks for all the music. So different to so much of what was around at the time. I remember seeing you live a couple of times. Eerie and somewhat chilling then uplifting and pulsating. I take it all the tapes are now long vanished?
January 11, 2013 at 7:55 am
Music from all my cassette albums has been remastered and re-ordered onto 6 CDRs which are still available, minus (in most cases) the inserts.
March 11, 2014 at 8:38 pm
Great to finally track down some of your music, I saw you live at The Syntheasia 82 gig in Liverpool . Like yourself I’m getting on a bit too but have stuck at the music without any success but it’s better than standing around on street corners (lol).
March 11, 2014 at 8:41 pm
I just realised it was 1992 (or was it 1991) in Liverpool, I really at getting old ?
February 10, 2017 at 11:40 am
Auricle at http://www.ultimathulerecords.com is issuing authentic CDR reissues of Kevin O’Neill cassettes. 2 are out so far, 1 more this month, 2 more next month… These are all official licenses from Kevin and restored as best as possible. We also sell these via our Discogs shop
October 21, 2017 at 5:45 am
All of my albums have been remastered and re-issued on CDr by Ulitima Thule, plus two ‘new’ ones. That’s 11 albums, 2 of them doubles.
December 26, 2018 at 8:44 am
All now also available via Bandcamp https://kevinoneill1.bandcamp.com/